Furious members of Congress on Wednesday threatened to cut off funding for the Organization of American States after top diplomats gathered here for its annual assembly repealed Cuba’s suspension from the hemispheric group, ending a decades-old remnant of the Cold War.
”The OAS is a putrid embarrassment,” declared U.S. Reps. Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, both Miami Republicans, in a joint statement.
The lifting of Cuba’s 1962 suspension was the result of weeks of back-room brokering, plus an hours-long private meeting in San Pedro Sula with foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
It ended Wednesday with the OAS’ leftist bloc accepting a paragraph that refers to Cuba abiding by ”practices, purposes and principles of the OAS,” words that Cuba’s allies had just the night before flat-out rejected, sources close to the negotiations said.
OAS’ Cuba move touches off outcry
